The present invention relates to an auxiliary tool for vacuum cleaners. More particularly, the present invention relates to a turbine driven brushing tool which is attached to a separate vacuum suctioning unit and is used to suction dirt and debris from carpets, floors, and above-floor surfaces.
Air is drawn into the turbo tool to drive a turbine contained in the tool. By adding a system of gear reductions, the rotational motion of the turbine is used to drive a rotating brush. There are typically several gears and/or belts between the turbine and the brush. The end result is often a brushroll that spins much slower than the turbine.
Turbine driven brushing tools have become extremely popular for cleaning a variety of surfaces in homes, offices, or wherever there are hard-to-reach places. These tools are relatively light weight and are attached to a separate suctioning unit, such as a vacuum cleaner, to provide air suction to the tool. As will be appreciated, such tools are utilized typically for small clean-up jobs or hard-to-reach places.
There are several prior art dry turbo tools that are available. Most of these prior art turbo tools do not provide for a separate clean air inlet channel to a turbine. Rather, suction air is used to power the turbine. As a result, drawback of the known dry turbo tools is that they draw the dirt and debris directly through the turbine, thus potentially damaging the turbine.
Another drawback with the prior art dry turbo tools is that they can only be used in one orientation; that is, the tool head cannot be rotated 180xc2x0 between two orientations.
Yet another drawback of prior art dry turbo tools is that they do not provide staggered air channels that guide air directly into a turbine.
Accordingly, it is desirable to develop a new and improved dry turbo tool which would overcome the foregoing deficiencies and others while meeting the above-stated needs and providing better and more advantageous overall results.
The present invention relates to a turbo tool. More particularly, the present invention relates to a dry turbo tool which is attached to a vacuum suctioning unit and is used to suction dirt and debris from carpets, floors, and above-floor surfaces.
In one embodiment, the dry turbo tool comprises a main housing with a first portion and a second portion. A brushroll housing is located within the main housing. The brushroll housing includes a top section and a bottom section. The brushroll housing houses a rotatable brushroll. The bottom section includes a suction opening through which dirt and debris are suctioned into the turbo tool.
A turbine assembly within the housing comprises a rotor, a pair of spiraled inlet channels, and an exit channel. Inlets on the housing first and second portions provide airflow to the turbine. The turbine is drivingly connected to the brushroll by a gear train which is housed within a gear train housing.
Dirty air and debris are suctioned into the turbo tool through the opening in the brushroll housing bottom section. The air passes to a tube which is connected to the suction opening in the brushroll housing top section. The tube is also connected to a tributary tube which communicates with an exhaust tube. The airflow from the brushroll housing opening and the airflow from the turbine merge into the exhaust tube through the tributary tube.
The exhaust tube connects to a hose swivel attachment which swivels between two positions approximately 180 degrees apart and locks into either position. A button is provided which serves to lock the tool into position and to allow the tool to rotate when the button is depressed.
Benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the following detailed description.